#i have not registrated anything about this show if i have seen anything about it before

[panncakes]

ohh the khun yai drunk on jom's lap reciting poetry scene is making me lose my mind actually

[mixelation]

i wrote. con stuff

Kakashi was refilling water canteens when he saw him up close for the first time. 

There were water jugs, set up along the hallways of the hotel. They came with nearly useless paper cones, and the space beneath the spigot wasn’t quite right for a Konoha-issued canteen. Kakashi was tucked into an alcove of one of the less trafficked corridors, finagling water into his canteen with the grace of a genin field-dressing their first wound, when he was hit with the scent of cinnamon. 

Kakashi looked up. There was a gaggle of people headed his way, their loud civilian footsteps muffled by the carpet. They were all clearly orbiting around one person. 

Kakashi found himself craning his head to look. He’d seen that guy from afar, before– he was the three-time winner of the Hokage Look-alike contest. He was in full costume, and Kakashi had to admit: this guy did make that cloak look good. He had cooler boots than Minato, even, and a roguish smile that made him look just a little dangerous, and a sword at his waist that Minato would never use but certainly offered a specific aesthetic. He was tanned and tall, and even though his hair was clearly bleached, it was cut well to frame his handsome face. Instead of a flak jacket zipped up to his neck, he had a low V-neck shirt that showed off he was as fit as everyone thought a ninja should be. He even smelled cool: sandalwood soap and cinnamon whiskey. 

Kakashi watched him as he passed by and then entered a screening room for some terrible TV show, his entourage of men and women alike babbling along behind him. The guy walked with the confidence of a Kage, even if his swagger was painfully civilian. 

Kakashi had spilled water all over his gloves. This was not a big deal, except he’d been refilling fucking Itachi’s canteen along with his own. Kakashi found him with the rest at a table in the little food court, and as he took his canteen, Itachi’s eyes traveled from his damp hand to his face with a look of judgment, like he knew exactly what happened. 

Itachi’s judgment, if one were to qualify and analyze all his facial expressions (or lack thereof, considering he had on an ANBU mask today), was mild. But it still felt like intense scrutiny. 

“Maa, Sensei, I saw your clone,” Kakashi said, sliding into an empty seat. Someone had bought him an extremely disappointing looking lunch. Wonderful. “He had about ten people following him.”

“Oh, so like the real Hokage,” Tori quipped. 

Minato amicably rolled his eyes, pushing a drink at Kakashi. Kakashi was pretty sure Itachi was technically on duty now, as Minato’s guard lost their shit whenever he decided to randomly leave Konoha for the day. There were a lot of cosplayers in bad ANBU masks wandering around, but Itachi wasn’t the type to break regulation for a quick costume. 

Tori would probably wear anything, though, Kakashi thought as she unpacked a plastic bag to show off her purchases. He should buy her a bird mask. She’d hate that. 

A chicken, he decided, flipping over a doujin to read the back. 

“Well?” Minato prompted, leaning forward conspiratorially. “Was his costume accurate?”

“Not really,” Kakashi replied. The doujin was about a fictional kunoichi realizing she was the Third Kazekage’s lovechild. Weird. “He sort of had… pirate vibes?”

Minato squinted at him uncertainly. 

“But cool,” Kakashi assured him. 

“His name is X,” Tori said very authoritatively. “Just X. That’s what’s on all his registrations.”

Minato frowned thoughtfully at his own lunch. “Is that cool? I can’t decide if that’s cool or not.”

“They think it’s cool,” Tori said, pointing to the entrance of the food court. 

X must not have liked the TV show very much, because he and what looked like an even bigger gaggle of fans spilled into the food court. Minato turned to watch blatantly and Tori followed suit, like gossipy children. 

(Itachi was much more subtle as he checked out the guy. He was in uniform, after all.)

“Wow,” Minato half-whispered, turning back around. “He does have pirate vibes. But, like, cool?”

“Is that an earring?” Itachi asked. 

“Should I get a shirt like that?” Minato wondered, staring down at himself. 

“I’m going to go talk to him,” Tori announced, kicking her feet over the bench. “Investigate. Find out his secrets.”

“Find out who made his cloak,” Minato told her. “Mine’s getting raggedy.”

Tori sauntered off. She always stomped around cons with the gait of a civilian, but Kakashi watched her add a little sway to her hips as she sashayed directly up to the mass of people floating around X as he ordered a shave ice. 

Kakashi watched Tori’s mouth as she twirled a strand of hair and asked if X also had Minato’s famous ANBU tattoo, which Minato absolutely didn’t have. She punctuated this by brushing her hand against his bicep. 

Kakashi read X’s lips as he smiled back at her: A true fan, are you?

“Damn, those dimples,” Minato commented. “I think I’m a little in love.”

One of the women who’d been floating around X looked absolutely stricken when Tori replied to a teasing accusation of being bold with, The Yellow Flash is quick but I’m quicker. 

“Does that even make sense?” Itachi wondered. 

“Should we…” Kakashi started. That guy was at least thirty, and Tori was seventeen. But also: Tori would eat him alive. Kakashi wasn’t sure where this train of thought had been going. 

Now she was leading him back over to them. She was quick. She had a little skip to her step on par with the time she’d shown him a seal made out of bacteria in a Petri dish. 

“This is X,” Tori introduced. Five separate people had sort of filed after them. “X, this is my Uncle, Minato.”

Itachi did a sort of full body twitch that made Tori’s eyes glint. If anyone connected the dots, no one showed it. Minato’s actual name wasn’t very common knowledge among civilians. 

“Er, hi,” Minato said, awkwardly standing to bow. His cheeks were pink. “Um– nice costume.”

X’s return smile was a little too cocky to be truly friendly, but also, those cheekbones. 

“Oh, you have a whole little group,” X drawled. “That’s cute.”

Itachi twitched again. Tori’s smile was starting to gain a sort of manic quality. 

“Thanks,” Minato replied slowly, clearly completely unsure what else he was supposed to say. “Uh, I was wondering– your cloak–”

X laughed, patted Minato on the shoulder, and promised him his own cloak was good enough. Then he shot Tori a wink and walked back to the rest of his entourage, just like that. 

“Umm,” Minato said, standing there dumbly. He twisted his face down to stare at where X had touched him. “Hmm.”

“I planted a tracker on him if you want to follow him,” Tori said, plopping down into her seat.

“I…” Minato continued to stand there, staring at his shoulder. Kakashi, somehow, understood this. 

(“I think we should find his hotel room and go through all his things,” Tori said. “Maybe steal his girlfriend. It’d be fun.”

“Entirely unnecessary,” Itachi replied.)

[atlasisreal]

YOU WERE AT *WHAT*????????????????????

yes it's true. the atlasisreal deep lore is that I attended dashcon in 2014.

that me 💕

anyways if you wanna hear my recollection of dashcon it's under the cut.

i was literally just a teenager at the time but seeing dashcon ads on Tumblr I was like. it's in Schaumburg??? like 30min from me??? I HAVE to go this is going to be the coolest thing ever. I love Tumblr all my mentally ill friends and supernatural gifs are on that website. I bet they're gonna have the coolest party ever.

LMAOOOOO

so i asked for the dashcon tix for my birthday! it was for me and my best friend (who attended and even cosplayed Homestuck with me despite not knowing anything about it) and my mom, who was mostly excited about staying in the nice hotel and swimming in the pool. I was so hype for this. anyways we get there and as people have previously talked about vis a vis dashcon, it was so hilariously underwhelming. the first thing you had to do was walk into the registration hall. I think most people have seen pics but they had written "Welcome DashCon" or something to that effect on the ground using blue painters tape, and the hall was empty asf which was really funny because they had set the table up aaaaaall the way at the back so you just got to walk across this big empty hall towards ONE PERSON sitting at a table (who in retrospect I'm pretty sure was the 19 year old they'd foisted this thing onto). she was super nice at the time though so shout out to that interaction.

we pretty much immediately headed for the only actual show floor area, which was the artists alley. if dashcon attendees are hard to find, I'm sure dashcon exhibitors are fucking unicorns bc there was... maybe 30 booths, if I'm being very generous. that being said, I got to meet nd Stevenson at dashcon! he was really nice, and complimented my cosplay. it's kind of fun to get to say I met the artist and author behind nimona and lumberjanes and she-ra at fucking DASHCON lol. hopefully next time I meet him it will be as a fellow professional comics artist huh who said that

gotta take a moment here to stress something. dashcon was very poorly planned and executed. this is true. BUT. the atmosphere, especially on the first day, was so joyful and connected. everyone was so stoked to be at THE Tumblr convention. all of us were weirdos who liked the weirdo website enough to show up in person for all our weirdo friends. We were all exchanging urls and taking big group photos and going to grab lunch together. people were very open and friendly. and I know that's my perspective as well, obviously there were plenty of things going horribly wrong behind the scenes, but having only been an attendee, it really wasn't the worst experience.

anyways so the day was fun and weird and a little boring because dashcon had fucking nothing going on but anyways so the scamming part. they called everyone into this main ballroom and stood on a little stage up front and were like "HEY IF WE DONT RAISE $200,000 THEYRE SHUTTING US DOWN" which definitely did NOT break my tiny little idiot baby heart. I definitely was super self aware and knew this was a dumb scam and I definitely DIDN'T cry and run to the hotel pool to tell my mom. she however immediately went "they're scammers and we paid for our hotel room so whatever lol". my bestie gave them $10 and after the fact was (rightfully) SUPER pissed about it because she WAS smarter than me and figured out the scam thing faster.

I think besides that scam thing the other thing I remember thinking was such fucking bullshit was that we would be walking past the ballroom where Welcome to Night Vale was supposed to perform and the line was insane. It was literally SOOOOO many people. I remember being a little bummed that I hadn't gotten tickets which was.... obviously a short lived regret. when they announced the night Vale cancellation I definitely realized shit was hinky.

a majority of the photos I have are from ballpitstuck! there was a Homestuck meetup at the ball pit, but a lot of us had found each other already and had been hanging out in little feral packs of homestucks, so we all meshed super well and basically immediately all became besties. we ended up kind of collectively agreeing to post stuff in the "ballpitstuck" tag, which is hilarious. I actually made fanart at the time! It's somewhere in the depths of my art blog. I've probably posted most of these before but for posterity:

we were cringe. but we were free. no but for real I did have so much fun hanging with the homestucks.

anyways the rest of the con was pretty much just hanging out and watching everything burn from the inside out. my favorite part was watching Tumblr react to dashcon in real-time, because everyone AT the convention was posting about it, and everyone who wasn't at the convention was actively following the updates. by the time we left I just remember being like "I think we've just experienced something very interesting". and now there's a Wikipedia page and a sarah z video about it so.

anyways shout out to my dashcon homies(tucks)

[jennyboom21]

And you replied: "Of course it is." You knew this was a a lie and it landed you in therapy but you want to believe.

This is the fakest moment in American history. Not since the moon landing has anything been so fake.

But you know what?

It's OK. This moment is actually interesting and fun. A certain sort of goofy obsession has seeped in. No, it's not real, but who cares? We all love this phony love affair. We will continue to love it. We will keep loving it until this spectacularly fake relationship dies and Kelce becomes a cautionary lyric on one of Swift's future albums.

For now, however, despite knowing this relationship isn't real, and likely some type of marketing ploy, we're all going to treat this like it's a true love story. The question is why do we like something that we know isn't real? The reasons, I believe, go beyond some of the obvious and superficial ones. It's not just our societal obsession with stars. It goes deeper than that.

Kelce and Swift represent a fleeting moment where we can all be a little nerdy and little obsessed and maybe even laugh at ourselves a little bit. I'm not talking about Swifties or Kansas City fans. Both of those groups are already hardcore and infatuated. This is about the rest of us. The people who don't have time to get obsessed about anything. The people who normally don't care about football, or how many stadiums Swift has sold out, can feel like they're part of something everyone else gets.

There's a more cynical view that says we're infatuated because our own lives are so boring. It's less that and more that our lives are so full. We don't just have our jobs and loved ones but the world seems chaotic and dangerous. There are threats to democracy, financial stress, a rise in white nationalism and extremism, and a general sense that things could go awry at any moment.

It's not simply that Swift and Kelce are a distraction. It's that sometimes we desperately need one.

This story is also about something else. The ability for all of us to laugh at ourselves. It's likely Swift and Kelce are laughing about this, too. So is Kelce's mom, Donna Kelce. Remember that scene in Kansas City when Travis scored a touchdown and Swift wildly celebrated but Donna, well, was just chill? That wasn't because she's seen her son score dozens of touchdowns. It was because she just didn't want to play along. Donna Kelce doesn't play that.

Yes, this is a conspiracy theory, but it's one of the few accurate ones.

I also believe we like the idea of Kelce and Swift as a couple because, at least as far as we know, they both seem like good human beings. We never truly know the people we follow as celebrities and while I don't know much about the singer, I do know the football player. He's known on the team as a diligent and decent person. He's been described to me by a former coach of his as "laid back" away from football.

Swift herself continues to do things away from her day job that have a considerable and positive societal impact. In a recent Instagram post, Swift pushed her 272 million followers to register to vote. The group Vote.org says it recorded more than 35,000 registrations.

"I've been so lucky to see so many of you guys at my U.S. shows recently. I've heard you raise your voices, and I know how powerful they are," she wrote on Instagram. "Make sure you're ready to use them in our elections this year!"

This, along with other things related to Swift and Kelce, caused the heads of right-wingers to explode. One wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter: "Taylor Swift hates America. Taylor Swift hates President Trump. Taylor Swift loves communism. Maybe Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift would be good together.”

Their anger was another reason to love this relationship.

The last time the public had such an infatuation with a couple was Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley. There was a belief that relationship, like this one, wasn't real either. That one felt weird to watch.

This one feels great to watch.

For the people who hate this story, don't worry, you're not alone. "I'm already over it," Chargers running back Austin Ekeler told the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz. "I'm over the Taylor Swift stuff. Can we move on please?"

No, we cannot. We will not. How dare you even ask?

And for those of you who say you don't care about any of this, well, you've read this far. You obviously do. Just like the rest of us.

Even if it is totally, without question, completely fake.

[horce-divorce]

NOAA finally has a predictive map to show how water levels in Michigan/the great lakes region could adjust with climate change. (Having a hell of a time finding the link to the actual tool, but i think its this one.) I'm really interested in this bc for YEARS everyone has said "coastal regions will be the most affected" but also that "the great lakes will be relatively protected" in the same breath. Really, the only prediction I've seen is that we will get hella climate refugees from the drought-ridden areas. In fact, some people I've spoken with have had an outright blase attitude about how climate change is going to hit Michigan.

I've been trying to find info about the coastlines and weather changing for four YEARS and haven't been able to find anything other than "no one knows, but NOAA is watching it." NOAA has a fuckton of really interesting sea vessels and research initiatives around here btw! I follow their aurora forecast religiously, they have all kinds of ROVs that explore the formations and sinkholes ans shipwrecks at the bottoms of the lakes, and now this, which I've obviously been waiting for someone to address.

If you live in the coastal region of Michigan you can SEE it happening in real time. Cliffs eroding, homes spilling into the sea, the shoreline and water levels changing dramatically between seasons. When I was a kid, there were yards and yards worth of beach and dunes to walk across to get to the water. Like easily half a block or more. When I came back in 2020, there was about 6 feet of beach. In just 4 years, the water levels have gone back and forth so much that it goes from being like this- so flooded there's no more beach- to Hamlin Lake this spring, following the extreme lack of snowfall:

My parents took these a few weeks ago. This is a lake, not a river or a creek. This is typically a BEACH. There is a dam on the far side of this lake. There are boardwalks to walk across the water and places where usually, you'd be able to kayak or canoe under the bridge. This campground is one of the most sought after, highest rated campgrounds in the entire United States. You have to reserve on New Years the minute they open registration to get a site.

Tbf Hamlin Lake is enormous, but the part that's dry.... is also not small, and its THE spot, right at the campsite. I highlighted it here.

Seeing it this dry is at least as shocking as going to lake michigan and seeing the water level randomly get so high you can't even put a towel down. It's at least as shocking as how unbelievably violent the wind and weather has gotten, how common gale force winds strong enough to shake houses and tear off siding are, the way they cannot reliably predict even normal weather on the coast anymore. The way the popup storms loom, undetected on the radar. It's at least as shocking as watching the dunes get smaller and smaller and cleave apart the more erosion they undergo, the more people that walk on them, watching the dunegrass and the scraggly beach trees straining at the roots to hold the earth together. It's at least as shocking as every time I've seen they clear cut a new swath of national forest for cabin rentals. We can't keep doing this. We can't keep doing this we can't keep doing this.

Anyway, this is just your friendly reminder that the Great Lakes ARE, in fact, part of America's coastal region. they are inland, freshwater seas rather than "lakes" as the names imply, and they, too, cannot remain unchanged by global warming.

Remember this when you think about the six YEARS it took for Flint to get clean water.

Just some food for thought.

[jaozendry]

"Don’t do anything stupid till I get back.”

Pairing: GN!Reader x Bucky Barnes

WARNINGS: mentions of self-harm

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

Type: Angst

Summary: Bucky picks you up from school after you call him on the verge of self-harming. The two of you have to explain to the school staff that he's your boyfriend.

______________________________________________________________

"Hey, what's up? Aren't you at school right now? Bucky says after picking up his phone anxiously. You weren't feeling well when he dropped you off this morning and he was worried something might happen. Thankfully, nothing happened, at least, not yet.

"Hey, uh, are you busy?" you ask over the phone, your voice shaking. You're currently sitting in a bathroom stall, the period started over 10 minutes ago, but you couldn't bring yourself to walk out and go to class. You felt... hopeless.

"No, why? What happened? Bucky asks, concerned. Do you want me to pick you up?"

You sigh loudly, banging your head against the door softly, holding back tears.

"I want to do it. I'm in the school bathroom, I didn't do it yet but it's in my pocket-"

Bucky cuts you off immediately.

"Alright, I'm coming. Just don't do anything, got it? Bucky orders you while putting on his jacket. I'm coming, please, just... don't do it."

You thank him as he hangs up and cry silently while Bucky closes the door to your apartment to pick your pitiful self up from school.

______________________________________________________________

You still hide in the bathroom, washing your red eyes from all the crying when you receive a text from Bucky saying he's 2 minutes away. From the text, you finally gain the courage to walk out of the bathroom. You get ready and head for the main office.

Unsurprisingly, you see Bucky greeting the woman at the front desk. You run to your boyfriend and hug him with all of your might in front of the lady. Bucky smiles and reaches for his pocket.

"See, Y/N has a doctor's appointment in about 30 minutes. I'm sorry I didn't advise the school earlier."

The woman takes the paper and examines it.

"Unfortunately, I can't let you leave if I don't have proof you're their father."

Bucky reaches once again in his pocket and pulls out a fake ID. This is extremely convinient, as you haven't seen your father in years. The school hasn't registered his name in the system, so you are quite literally fatherless.

"It seems you aren't registered in the system, but we can do it now and you'll be free to go, she explains taping on her keyboard. It will take only a few minutes."

______________________________________________________________

After completing Bucky's registration, you two head for the car while holding hands.

"Thanks, you say softly while closing the door. I needed it."

You look at him and he holds your hand.

"I'm always here for you."

You look at his fake doctor's appointment tment and his fake ID.

"Richard Y/L/N?" you ask, giggling.

"There's that smile I was looking for, he says, caressing your cheek. Show me your arms."

You pull out your sleeves to reveal that it hasn't been cut at all. Bucky smiles proudly. He immediatly reaches for your right pocket to confiscate your pocket knife from you. You act offended, but deep down, you thank him. You lean your hand on his shoulder while he starts to car and whisper in his ear.

"Thanks, daddy."

[itssokiee]

Smudged Happiness: Chapter three

Previous Chapter

First Chapter

It’s the first day of school and everyone is back together.

After a stressful first day, Lucy, Gray, Erza, and Natsu make plans to get after school ice cream.

Only, Gray and Erza never show and now Lucy is being driven to Natsu’s house by his emo older brother.

Lucy anxiously fidget with the zipper on her backpack during the drive to school. She hadn’t seen her friends for the entire summer - what if things were different? They probably all hung out all summer getting super close while Lucy was in Europe.

Poor Lucy she scoffed to herself. Complaining you spent your summer luxuriously traveling. Way to be spoiled. She half listened to her drivers ramblings of the usual small talk. Lucy must’ve forgotten to respond one too many times because she realized after a while he stopped. Finally they arrived.

“Thank you, and see you later.” Lucy said and she got out of the car.

“I will pick you up at 3:30 Ms. Lucy.” And with that her driver headed back to the Heartfilia residence.

Unfortunately, Lucy didn’t have time to catch up with her friends as she headed straight for the schools receptionist. “Hey there! My name is Lucy Heartfilia. I am a sophomore and I was in Europe during the open registration and have not gotten my schedule yet,” she said.

“Oh of course! I’ll go ahead and get that printed for you,” the receptionist responded. “Please take a seat while I look you up.”

Hopefully this doesn’t take too long Lucy thought. Next to her was a solemn looking girl with big blue deep eyes. She looked at the ground clearly not wanting Lucy to talk to her.

“Juvia Lockser?”

The girl got up and followed the lady back to her office. Seems like a new student.

“Lucy Heartfilia?” The receptionist called.

Lucy walked back up to her desk.

“So it looks like unfortunately, you missed the deadline for confirmation of residency and you were unenrolled from our school,” she said frowning.

Lucy’s body turned to ice. “Huh?”

“We will be able to reenroll you and get a schedule if you are able to provide this proof now,” the secretary said. After many phone calls to different staff of the Heartfilia residence, and creating a schedule from leftover sophomore classes, Lucy finally got her schedule 10 minutes before lunch.

“This isn’t how I thought today would goooo,” Lucy whined to herself. She made her way to the courtyard to the table she and her friends had sat last year. She felt her stomach fluttering with anxiety and a shocking sensation through her spine. they definitely forgot about you

“Yo Lucy! Where have you been?”

Lucy turned around to see Gray waving her over. Instantly The shocking feeling melted and Lucy smiled and she walked over.

“Hey Gray, Hey Erza! Levy, Mira how was your guyss summer!?” Lucy said smiling. Instantly she felt at home. She sat at the table and listened about how Gray’s swim team won state and about different clients Erza got to work with. Levy went on a month long trip to Honduras for habitat for humanity and Mira gained 10k followers on instagram showing off her skin care routine.

“Lucy, how was London?”

Lucy hesitated. Truthfully, she didn’t enjoy almost anything about her trip. Being under the microscope of her father, having to always appear presentable, sitting through boring meetings. But everybody else was so excited about what they did and she didn’t want to be the rich girl complaining.

“It was awesome I went to like five museums and attended so many fancy galleries with the craziest food I’ve ever seen,” she said excitedly.

“By the way guys, where’s Natsu?”

As soon as she said it though, she caught eye of a boy in all black matching smoldering hair and eyes walking straight towards them through the people in the courtyard. He was hurriedly writing on a piece of paper.

“Hey isn’t that Zeref, Natsu’s brother?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah I wonder what he wants,” Levy said nervously.

Zeref had a reputation at the school. He is a genial prodigy who got perfect grades without ever once putting in effort, he got a 1600 SAT score and 34 ACT score, and he is known for his cleverness. However, he took the bare minimum easy classes, constantly skipped, and overall was a cold sarcastic person. Lucy even hear a rumor that he would drink vodka in his water bottle. Often times, when he wasn’t alone, he hangs around the students either bad rap sheets, like Mard Gear. That’s why Lucy couldn’t get over the fact that the Senior darling Mavis was seemingly friends with them. Not that she ever saw them interact at school.

Zeref approached the table and dropped a folder towards the spot Natsu usually sat at. “Tell Natsu I finished his math homework,” he said while walking away.

Just as Zeref made his exit Natsu finally arrived. “AAAAHHH I JUST GOT CHEWED OUT BY MRS GATES FOR TEN MINUTES!! ALL JUST BECAUSE I TOOK A NAP!” He yelled.

“She doesn’t want you to fail a second time and up with you again flame-brain,” Lucy said teasingly.

Natsu’s mood switched like a match, “Yo Lucy! Did you miss me?”

“Ohhhhh he missed youuuuuu,” Mira sang, “he kept being like ‘I can’t wait to tell Lucy this.’”

Lucy and Natsu both went red. “No I didn’t…” Natsu stammered.

“Natsu, your brother has left your homework for you. You do realize that another student doing your homework is considered cheating,” Erza said looking at him sternly.

“Please Erza!! Let it go this once!!” Natsu begged.

“Only because Mrs. Gates doesn’t deserve you a third time.”

“By the way we totally all gotta hang out this afternoon. Before all the extracurricular and home really ramps up,” said Gray.

“Erza you want to drive us to get ice cream after school - now that you gotta fancy car?” Natsu asked.

“You do know I can’t resist that,” Erza said, “we can go right after school.”

“I can’t! The tutors having an informational meeting after school today,” said Levy.

“And I gotta take Elfman to a Karate tournament!” Said Mira.

“Ah well next time,” said Gray.

“Hello Erza,” said a a guys voice.

Lucy loooked over and saw a tall junior boy with a smug expression on his face. Jellal! Lucy looked over at Erza. She gave him her usual dirty look but something extra was in it. Could it possibly be… embarrassment?

“What do you want?” She asks coldly.

He pretended to look hurt. “I was just on my way to an emergency student council meeting. I thought I would do you the courtesy of letting you know about it. But if you prefer I’ll go,” he said smugly.

“Right now? Seriously? Alright I’ll come with you,” Erza said as she took her stuff to follow him.

For the rest of lunch, they talked and goofed around like nothing happened. Lucy couldn’t believe she felt so foolish. These were her true friends. The bell rang and Lucy finally went to her first class of the day - math. She saw the new girl in her class - Juvia.

She’s probably just nervous and lonely Lucy thought as she sat next to her.

“Hi my name is Lucy. I was new here last year, I know it sucks at first but there’s amazing people here to meet. What’s your name?”

“There’s no point. Nobody could ever care about me. I’m just an aura that exuded misery,” she responded.

“Who knows? Maybe I could be your firmed if you let me?” Lucy said smiling, “my friends and I are hanging out tonight if you want to come,” Lucy offered. Juvia got up and moved to a desk further back. So much for that.

Lucy’s day ended relatively smooth until those so called plans. Lucy met Natsu at the school parking lot when the dismissal bell rang.

“Where’s everyone else?” Lucy asked.

“I dont know,” Natsu said, “Erza and Gray won’t answer their phones. I guess we can wait a little longer.” Still, after thirty minutes there was no word.

“Crap!” Lucy exclaimed, “My driver! I forgot to text him!” Lucy quickly shot him a text apologizing.

“Wait but now we’re stranded,” Lucy said.

“Well I bet Zeref is still loitering around with his friends. We could get him to drive us. If your down to hang out at my house, my dad won’t be home til late,” Natsu said.

Go to Natsu’s house? Just them two? Granted they’ve hung out alone numerous times, but still, this felt intimate. “Like me go to your house?” Lucy stammered.

“Yeah, why not?”

“Umm uhh yeah sure!” Lucy said. Better than my house.

“Alright I’ll text Zeref to get his ass over here so we can go. Follow me I know where his car is.” When they got there however, none other than Mavis Vermillion herself was there.

“Yo Mavis how’s it going!” Natsu said, grinning.

“Not bad, what about yourself,” she said smiling back at him.

“Are you waiting for Zeref?” Natsu asked.

“You could say that…”

“This is my friend Lucy!”

“Nice to meet you,” Mavis said sweetly.

“Oh we’ve met before,” Lucy said.

Then, at long last Zeref pulls up.

“Natsu if my departure time isn’t suited to your liking, get your ass on the bus and stop blowing up my phone-“

“Oh so your phone does work and you have been ignoring me,” Mavis said.

“Oh, hey Mavis… it’s not like that,” Zeref said taken back.

“What’s it like then?”

Lucy felt incredibly awkward caught between whatever this was.

“Well it doesn’t matter, Zeref. Because I have something for you,” she said slightly smiling.

“Y-you do? What?” He asked nervously.

“I can only show you at your house, so you better drive us all there,” Mavis said.

“But you drove here -your car -“ Zeref stammered.

“I guess you’ll have to drive me back in the morning,” she said opening the passenger door.

“And who is this?” Zeref said motioning towards Lucy.

“This is my friend Lucy we’re gonna hang out at home,” Natsu explained.

“Uh we’ve met before and you literally talked to me this morning,” Lucy said.

Zeref gave her a miserable look, “Alright let’s go then I guess.”

And with that they drove off to the Dragneel residence.

Next

[wumiings]

You ever start making a post and then realize you need to be making a completely different post? Well this is that.

I know that many many people have already discussed the ways in which the lessons Merlin is taught by both Gaius and Kilgharrah (that [1] it’s his job to prove there can be Good Wizards and [2] a Good Wizard is defined by their willingness to maintain the status quo) fuck him up badly and lead to him preaching those same lessons at other righteously angry magic users

But I just get angrier and angrier the more I think about it because I’ve seen what that rhetoric does to people!! I’ve lived it!!

I remember the quiet shame my father (a black man) expressed when we talked about Will Smith hitting Chris Rock at the Oscars last year - the look on his face as he guiltily explained, “It’s not that I think it’s his responsibility to represent us all in front of the white folks exactly… it’s just that I wish that the first time someone struck someone else at this awards show, it hadn’t been a black man who did it.”

He knew on a logical level that a man’s actions (whatever you think of them) couldn’t be weighed morally on the basis of ‘how it makes us look,’ but he was raised to keep that idea constantly in mind: “Every time you step out of the house, you are representing your race to the world, so don’t do anything that reinforces negative stereotypes,” is one of the first lessons he remembers learning as a child.

And I do it too! Two years ago, my dad and I got pulled over while driving my (white) mom’s car downtown- one of her taillights was out or something idk- and for some reason her vehicle registration papers weren’t in the glove box that day. Naturally, dad and I were both freaking the fuck out, so I did exactly what all logic suggested was the safest thing to do:

[1] Emphasize that it was my mother’s car (hoping the clearly-skeptical cop would extrapolate her whiteness from the difference in my and my dad’s skin tones), [2] mention that my mom works at the local hospital, while my dad was out of town and would be Leaving Soon, [3] specifically refer to the fact that I’m a college student (educated and therefore Civilized according to the standards of the dominant class)

So, yeah, basically the message was “It’s okay, we are Assimilated! We have connections to Whiteness! And if you still don’t trust us, don’t worry, because we don’t intend to overstay our welcome in your community!”

And it fucking worked. We got out of there with a ticket and matching anxiety attacks, and my dad refused to drive my mom’s car again for the rest of his visit, and we were fine.

But we weren’t fine because we’d somehow- by playing the game- convinced the cop that black people weren’t as untrustworthy as he had been assuming. We did not leave him just a little less racist than he had been before. We were just (very tentatively) stamped “some of the good ones”.

That is what Gaius and (increasingly over time) Merlin spend the whole show doing. That is what Merlin tries to teach Gilli to do in “The Sorcerer’s Shadow”. And, hey, it’s a survival strategy! It isn’t unreasonable as a member of a minority group to try and keep yourself and your loved ones safe.

But what it isn’t is an action plan for systemic change. You cannot “one of the good ones” your way into a more equal world. It isn’t about getting enough cops knights to like you personally that they willingly abandon their prejudices and convince the head of government to change the laws.

“Maybe it’s your destiny to change that” my ass, Kilgharrah. It was a bullshit plan. It was always a bullshit plan, and Merlin’s initial instincts (seek out allies in similarly disadvantaged positions and then break the shit out of the law for them) were much more in line with the ‘Emrys, liberator of magic’ persona than any of the shit you and Gaius told him to do.

[shihalyfie]

From one Appmon enjoyer to another, do you know what this series' standing with Bandai/Toei is? It really feels like the Appmon's inclusion and exclusion with the rest of the franchise is constantly pinballing. It's included in stuff like the anime anniversaries, the Digimon museum and is at least acknowledged in the questionnaire for the upcoming 25th anniversary book, but then it's a no show for the vote for best anime opening and the manga is missing from the manga competition PV. Any idea?

I've noticed this too, and this is only my personal observation and take on the issue, but the way I've been seeing it is like this: the Toei side (Digimon Partners, Kizuna website timeline, aforementioned museum, basically anything that has a stronger emphasis on anime production) has  been showing no restraint about treating it like another Digimon anime and including it proudly in the lineup with everything else, whereas the Bandai side (Digimon Web, card game, Premium Bandai, etc.) has been waffling on whether to consider it as part of the franchise or not and has been more flip-floppy on it, probably leaning more on the side of excluding it.

I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that part of this is another of the Digimon franchise's usual "right hand not talking to left hand" issue. Toei produced the Appmon anime and thus understands very well that it's pretty much the same as any other Digimon anime in terms of substance, writing style, story concept, and even production pipeline (the Appmon staff list is full of people who worked on older Digimon anime too, after all). So to them, Appmon really is the same as any other Digimon anime and is another part of their portfolio they should be proud of.

However, Bandai has a much weaker relationship with the anime, and things get much more complicated when you start taking into account all of the Appmon-related things that are not anime. When you consider the Appmon "IP" as a whole, it is true that at first glance, it looks more like a spinoff branch than anything (it has its own website portal too, so someone giving it only a cursory glance could easily assume that there's no point putting Appmon things on Digimon Web because the dedicated Appmon site takes care of that), it had its own card game, it had its own trademark registrations, and its monster lines and evolutionary systems are somewhat more incompatible with the main Digimon lines than even the Xros Wars lines used to be. I imagine someone working with Digimon-related stuff at Toei is probably going to have a much higher likelihood of understanding how close of a relationship Appmon had in practice with the mainline series than someone at Bandai who only got a list of all the relevant merch lines and naturally jumped to the conclusion "yeah this is a spinoff branch, ignore it for now." Most of the people reading my blog here are probably coming from the anime fan perspective, but it's important to remember that the anime is only one part of the entire IP's branding.

In other words, it's basically the inverse of that really awkward period between 2014 and 2019 when the Bandai side had no problem treating 02 as normal while Toei was treating it like some kind of cryptid.

Another thing to consider is that, as much as it breaks my heart to say this, it is true that there is a certain not-insignificant branch of the Japanese fanbase that absolutely loathes Appmon with all of their being, or at least wants it to stay as far away from their precious Digimon franchise as much as possible. This attitude is much less pronounced in the Western fanbase (or at least, if you do have a condescending attitude about it you'll easily get a whole crowd of fans treating you like a laughingstock) mainly because to be this hardcore of a Digimon fan at all means you really need an extra level of dedication, but I have definitely seen an entire Japanese Digimon fan camp that cares more about the Digimon null canon and species/evolutionary lineup than they really care about any anime or anime story at all. To them, it doesn't matter how close the anime was in style to the traditional Digimon style, it doesn't even matter if the anime was good or not, Appmon was still that weird thing that threatened to dismantle all the existing Digimon lore they'd built up over the years and turn it into something unrecognizable, so they want nothing to do with it.

Even ones who aren't downright condescending about it still clearly don't want to see them mixing; I was watching a Japanese YouTube video recapping the history of the Digimon franchise, and once they got to the 2014-2018 period, they labeled it "heaven and hell" due to the rather turbulent period that was and labeled different parts of it "heaven" or "hell", but Appmon was branded "not sure if it's heaven or hell" because the YouTuber's attitude was basically treating it as a financial and branding failure that attempted to completely go off in a weird direction, and although he did acknowledge "people who watched the anime said it was actually pretty good, though" it was treated like a comparative footnote. And unfortunately, this part of the fanbase is responsible for funding a good chunk of the franchise in terms of merch, especially the card game, which is the franchise's current effective life support and is a reason I'm particularly apprehensive about whether Appmon will ever be able to get any representation there.

But on the flip side, things like Digimon Partners don't have to worry about that -- because anything that selects for the anime-loving part of the fanbase is therefore also likely to be more closely targeting people who care about the anime, and therefore are more likely to care about Appmon. Like for instance, the fact Offmon actually was a winner in one of the merch polls; I'm not too surprised that happened on Partners, but I'm definitely not as confident that would have happened on Digimon Web. Digimon anime fans are generally the ones who are most consistent about wanting to see Appmon included in the lineup (and, I mean, really, I don't exactly know anyone who actually liked the Appmon card game, and very few people played the 3DS game, so the anime and to a lesser degree the manga based directly on it are honestly the only parts of that entire IP branch that actually got any significant following), so it's understandable that the Toei side would be more likely to pick up on that and be more proactive about it. Which, mind you, is still something that's only specific to the last few years; after all, it wasn't even that long ago since they were in that phase of everything besides the original Digimon Adventure being unworthy of note, so it's really thanks to their attempts at restoring their relationship with the fanbase and improving their PR that they've been making headway at since 2020.

[compacflt]

Dude you should be so so so so so proud, literally one of the best pieces I've ever read. It's the angst and complex characterization of Baldwin's Giovanni's Room meets the research behind The Alienist (the book, obvi- haven't actually seen the show yet). I adore how you maintained the characters' personal values even though I don't like them most of the time, and I now know way too much about the military in general because I would wikipedia something every third sentence. (Also thanks for that because coincidentally I'm working on a research project on how low-level fighter jet training affects marine animal behaviour, and I actually passed my first oral with flying colours because of the random knowledge I have acquired while reading/because of your fic.) That being said, I desperately want a physical copy on my bookshelf- would you ever feel comfortable distributing one or letting us go get it printed professionally? If not, I totally understand and am more than happy with what we have access to now! Seriously, thank you- it's incredible.

thank you thank you thank you for the ask!! just gonna answer by point

1. i am very proud!!! just extremely editorbrained ie have been trying to fix all the flaws for the last two months straight, and now all i see are problems & flaws that i couldn’t fix…. you guys should see my hard copy of this fic every single page is basically black with pencil. just ripped it to shreds. it’s just a writer thing i think, i am my own worst critic :(

2. if by personal values you mean political opinions … I wish it were like socially acceptable to post my extremely in-depth headcanons about random shit like this because i am so deep in it that i literally wrote out ice and mav’s voting records since 1980. Tldr: conservaDems. registered R but consistently vote D. mav would vote libertarian if his husband weren’t standing over him threatening divorce. after 1/6/21 change their registration to D & are basically just neolib shills. only reason they don’t vote obama in 2008 is that mccain was a navy vet.

3. thank you for the compliment but i am literally BEGGING you guys not to take anything i say/claim in this fic about the military to be true. there are certainly elements of the truth but many of the details i literally just made up. or altered to make plot sense (see IRST discussion ch 9, IRST was SUGGESTED by Boeing in 2007/8, not implemented until 2010ish). so much of the plot simply would not happen in real life. i can make a whole post about this sometime if people are interested cause there is actually so much I could say about real life accuracy in this fic/implications of real life shit…

4. no way???? that research project sounds so interesting??? congrats on passing ur oral!! idk what that means but congrats!!!! coincidentally i am also working on a research project—it’s why i have to stop working on this fic at some point. my senior research thesis is a novel about USAF CSAR chopper pilots so ive been doing so much research over the last 5 months… but about the USAF not the USN. my navy research HAS helped though. so maybe it’s a mutually reciprocal relationship :) i would love to hear more about ur project!!!

[msvorderofoperations]

Another very involved dream last night.

I dreamed that there was a cruise that was also a reality show about surviving a zombie outbreak, but it was notable for a couple of reasons. One, the absolutely ludicrous money behind the project: corporate sponsorships from literally every major media company, and the ship itself was an incredible technological achievement. The cruise ship was also a functional submarine with tonnes of viewing places for when the shop was below the surface. It also had a lot of secret passages and gimmicked places so one could find safety or other resources for the set times when zombie shit started happening. Secondly, it was taking place during an actual zombie outbreak. Thirdly, this was a sequel series. And during the first, some actual zombies got on board and it ended up being one of the worst outbreaks (because I guess it was actually being handled quite well in the world at large). Despite - or possibly because of - that, tens of thousands of people signed up. In addition to the life-changing sum (though never actually specified) of money being offered as a prize, the previous iteration of the show had launched a number of influencer careers, so even if you didn't win it was still a worthwhile endeavour.

The process had been learned from the last "season" of the show and it opened up registration much earlier, and the production team was doing a lot more to tamp down stowaways. Both to stop more people from competing unfairly, and in the hopes of stopping another outbreak. And as this was still a capitalistic venture, you still had to pay to get on. Which is fucked up, weird, and gross, but I digress. I was part of a loose collection of strategious people that applied real world zombie fighting tactics and also closely looked at the underpinnings of how the show itself was run to make doubly sure that they lasted.

Just before things got underway, I had found something of rather enormous importance: zombies (the real ones) reflected a huge amount of infrared light from their eyes. This is not normally a thing one can notice since humans can't see into the IR spectrum, but can be viewed through most (but not all) digital cameras. Notably, the high end cinematic cameras that were being used in the production of the show have an IR filter so there wouldn't be weird flares. But most phone cameras could still see it. In addition to the huge benefit this would have in identifying potential threats, you could also use it to find out if people were carriers, or infected with the zombie virus, as the progression of the infection lined up with how much IR output their eyes have off.

I kept this on the down low as much was safe, sharing only with people I trusted and could actually utilize this information. The ship got underway, with all the pomp one would expect from a combination high-end cruise that was the setting for a hugely successful reality show. What was very odd was that there were no assigned quarters for people. Everyone was left to just mill around and find places to rest wherever. The first day was without any scripted zombie activities, so people could familiarize themselves somewhat to the layout of the ship, and be properly rested when the time did come.

I have never been on a cruise, so I can't speak to how well they are appointed. But this one felt special. There were a bunch of themed restaurants, very well equipped activity centres, and dance clubs. It was unlike anything I have ever seen. I wandered through myriad different locations, including a pirate themed restaurant that was geared towards kids, which upon learning that I skipped out on. I eventually found a Good Omens themed bar that was adjacent to Universal Monsters geared night club, and hung out there for a while. After I had a few drinks in me, I kept exploring and ended up finding a rather more understated game hall that had a bunch of classic arcade cabinets, and a bunch of pinball tables. I had found my respite.

A lot of the people that I was aligned with were there, along with people I didn't know but had similar personalities and goals. After introducing myself, and chatting up the new faces an announcement went out to the ship: it would soon be diving. We could only stick to the shallows, owing to the fact that the open decks were closed over with transparent materials and would therefore not be able to take too many atmospheres of pressure. Still, it would be a unique sight, and people were keen to take it in. We were still in the tropics as all this was happening, and the moon was full that night so a lot could still be seen. A lot of people were gearing up to place themselves right up against the glass so they could be as close as possible, but I left that to them. For all the fantastic aspects of this dream, I still had my own aquaphobia to contend with.

I think I ended up passing out drunk in an unused place for hookups, and woke up the next morning as the days events were getting underway. There were only a few announcements, and the first zombie event was happening soon. I was a little flat-footed, but not entirely unprepared for it. One of the considerations they had was that - initially at least - any and all zombies were going to be wearing plastic jewels to clearly identify them. Also, as a way to rise in the ranks there were "boss" zombies and additional objectives other than survival. As things got underway, I worked my way to a place I knew I could hide if things got too hairy. However, there was another person working her way there and she was incredibly dangerous.

She knew that because real actual casualties were expected on at least some level, she was using live weapons to actually harm people to satisfy some sick psychopathy. I tried to talk her down, but once she saw that I grokked what she was doing, she made for the hideout. In her escape, she started throwing knives at me, and one of them caught my foot and split my big toe. The cabinet she was in (it was too small to be called anything else) had a gas actuated revolving door. Every time I tried to open it to bring her out, she would toss a knife and turn on the door again. Knowing that I had to do something or she would just keep killing, I noticed something about her knives. They were throwing knives, but they were multipurpose: on the handle of each, they held a small flint for starting fires. I grabbed a couple of them and set to work. I found the line that provided the butane that powered the door, and worked it loose. I cut a nick into the line, and then activated the door. As soon as the door turned, I started sparking the flint. As she activated it again, the turning drew in the gas, just as a flame started to propagate.

There was a muffled explosion, and screaming. Now that the gas was cut off, and the thing had been damaged it wouldn't turn under its own power. I felt terrible at having to take another life, but she had to be stopped.

This happened to coincide with the end of the zombie event. Scores were tallied, casualties were registered, and announcements about who had done well and who had been eliminated were made. The people who had gotten overwhelmed had the option of being part of the zombie hoard for the duration (but they would have to spend all of their time in the crew quarters) or getting off the ship the next time we made port. Notably, some big important established personality I personally saw get taken early on, was not among the announced washouts. The production had quietly decided that someone as big a draw as them had to last at least until midseason. I was annoyed but not exactly surprised, such is the way of reality TV.

The rest of the day was spent in sober reflection. There was no telling how many more people like the person I had killed were on board, and there was still the very real threat of an actual outbreak. This was reinforced by the fact that when the shop dived that night, instead of marine fauna we saw a sizable grouping of old waterborne zombies.

The next day was odd. Before there were the morning announcements, there was a spectacle I can only liken to the opening ceremonies of an Olympic event, except even more elaborate. We were now approaching arctic waters, and to celebrate they somehow managed to arrange for a bunch of sperm whales to breach in time with the music they had playing. There were so many overt and blatant product placements. At one point, Celine Dion was singing and playing a piano made of Lego. I realized then that this wasn't for me, it was for the people at home and the contracted companies. I then headed inside to gather more intel on what was going on in the inner workings. I saw some of my like minded people doing similar, and attempting to monitor data being sent through the ship.

Once a hard connection got made, a bit of information flashed on the screen, but we didn't capture all of it. The ships PA then started making announcements about physical landmarks that we were passing...but were actually nowhere nearby. This announcement lined up with what of the information we were able to glean from our connection. Another announcement happened immediately after asking passengers not to connect to the ships intranet, as it may cause further errors as what just happened. Seeing that the jig was up, we disconnected hurriedly.

After that, another person who was not part of our group started bragging that he had caught the bit of info we had lost, and was now sending that via text message to all of the passengers. It was nothing of terrible importance, just a comment left by one of the coders after putting in the lines of code about the landmarks. It did imply something rather important, though. All of the code and communications of the ship were unencrypted. Not the biggest scoop, but now that literally every contestant knew things were doubtless going to become much more complicated.

It was around this point that I woke up. As I have mentioned before, there was so much more to the dream that I left out for the sake of brevity, which should say something given how large this post ended up. Details about the ships construction, where it was made, the culture around the show and the world at large after having to reckon with zombies, and even how the staff tended to passenger needs. And a whole subplot about pets that I didn't feel worth mentioning. This one was fairly mundane compared to some of the other dreams I've had, but the amount of information that was given to me was staggering.

[mariacallous]

The Supreme Court’s decision to reverse nearly fifty years of precedent and send the abortion issue back to the states sent shock waves throughout the country. During the summer months the implications of that decision were widely held to be helping the Democrats in what had been shaping up to be a dismal midterm election year. In some states voter registration of women surged. But by Labor Day the conventional wisdom had swung back. No, insisted most pundits, abortion wouldn’t drive many votes, but inflation would.

How wrong they were.

The first indication came early on election night in CNN’s exit polls. To the obvious surprise of the on-air talent, abortion came in a close second to inflation: 31% said inflation was their top issue but 27% said abortion was. Despite late pre-election polls showing abortion sinking to third or fourth place or disappearing, there are several reasons why the issue never really went away.

First, there are a lot of women in America, they are evenly distributed across the country, and they consistently vote more often than men—as the following table from our colleague Bill Frey here at Brookings illustrates.

This year was no different. According to CNN exit polls, women constituted 52% of the vote and men 48%. That is an enormous difference. Let’s assume that turnout in 2022 ends up being about the same as the record 2018 turnout—roughly 116 million votes. The women’s share of that vote? 60,320,000. Exit polls also show that 53% of women voted Democratic. That’s 31,969,600 votes—a big number. Hillary Clinton, who clearly shares our frustration with those who discounted the women’s vote, tweeted out the following clearly sarcastic comment: “It turns out women enjoy having human rights, and we vote.”

Apart from the sheer magnitude of the women’s vote is the issue of intensity. Unlike men, women spend a great deal of their lives thinking about reproduction. They have no choice. Even in the 21st century, pregnancy is still a dangerous business, and women’s health care is no place for government bureaucrats. No wonder that women think abortion is a lot more important than men do. As the election season entered its final stretch, and many Republican candidates got a crash course in obstetrics, some pulled back and/or softened their previous hard lines on abortion.

The importance of the issue was seen most clearly in the Senate debate in Pennsylvania. Although the Democrat, John Fetterman gave a halting performance because he was still recovering from a serious stroke, his opponent, Republican Mehmet Oz, managed to make what had to be one of the most damaging comments on abortion ever: “I want women, doctors, and local political leaders…” to make these decisions.

The sheer absurdity of that comment went a long way towards distracting voters from the issue of Fetterman’s health and reminded many that government shouldn’t be making those decisions.

Finally, abortion is fundamentally different from inflation. Inflation is unpopular with both parties—there is no pro-inflation and anti-inflation party. In fact, if we’ve learned anything about politics in our polarized time it’s that voters see almost all issues through their partisan lens. Democrats worried about inflation could think that Joe Biden was dealing with it and Republicans that Joe Biden caused it. But abortion is different. One party is clearly in favor of keeping it legal in most or all circumstances and the other is not.

If you put together the sheer size of the women’s vote, the intensity of the issue and the fact that, unlike inflation or the economy, the two parties have stark differences on the issue, you get a powerful driver of the vote. There were five states with abortion referenda on the ballot and in every single one—including the deep red state of Kentucky—the pro-choice position won. In Michigan, where the abortion referendum won by 13.4 percent, it is not far-fetched to assume that it helped the Democrats keep several congressional seats. And in Pennsylvania, where abortion topped inflation by 9 points, Democrats picked up the only Senate seat so far.

The following table shows the percentage of voters in each of the crucial states and how they rated inflation and abortion. In most cases abortion was a close second; in Michigan and Pennsylvania it was far ahead of inflation.

Central to the story of the 2022 midterms, then, is an issue central to women’s lives, powerful enough to snatch victory from the Republicans, and durable enough to send a message about the future.

[r1999-transcript]

Story 0x03 - Teleport

Sonetto: We are distanced from them for now …

Female Investigator: Captain, are there any “Teleport” floppy disks left? We have to go now!

Sonetto: This is the last one. Let’s take Regulus back.

Regulus: … Huh? Where are we going?

Sonetto: Please do not get me wrong. We will not do anything against you. We are investigators from St. Pavlov Foundation. As far as I know, you have not registered for the arcanum licence. Unauthorised use of arcanum is a violation of the Public Security Law. Please cooperate with our investigation and registration. Just come back with us to the research center. And …

Sonetto looks at the sky, where thunder is bursting constantly.

Sonetto: As quickly as possible.

Regulus: Huh? Am I … recruited? Fine fine! It’s ok to go with you. But could you show me the floppy disk first?

Sonetto: Sure. No problem.

Regulus: Wow … so the incantation can really be recorded and read! A floppy disk to store advanced arcane skills. So cool! If only I can take it apart … This is where you start the ritual … Looks like just a signature will work …

Sonetto: That’s right. I heard that you are also a fan of technolog- …

Female Investigator: Oh no! Everyone get down!

Sonetto: Ambush!

Vertin: *coughs* … Anyone hurt?

The Manus Believer: Give me …!

Vertin: Careful! These are different rioters! The way ahead of us is blocked.

Sonetto: Manus Vindicatae had disappeared for a long time. Why are there so many of them …

Vertin: Take them down first. Sonetto, keep assisting me please!

…

Sonetto: Oh, that was close. Finally got rid of them. Let’s hurry up now. We can’t waste our time anymore. Please pass me the floppy disk, Regulus. I will start the ritual … Hm? Regulus … Where is she?

Male Investigator: Seems that she … started the ritual and disappeared in chaos.

Sonetto: …

A beam of dim light flashes behind the rock in the distance.

Vertin: *pick up the records* She must be in such a rush that she even forgot her “stuff.”

Male Investigator: We can only walk back now … Captain, just give up the Regulus mission.

Female Investigator: If we stay for too long, we can’t be back in time. Staying outside during the “Storm” … Means you’ll be disqualified as the investigator. You should know that, Captain!

Sonetto: You go first. We’ll split up the team. You’ll go back to the Foundation to report; while I, as Captain, will stay till the last moment.

Vertin: What are you going to do after Regulus’s registration? The “Storm” is about to come.

Sonetto: “Express gratitude, salute, and see their leaving. Never disturb the lives of the registrants.”

Vertin: You haven’t seen the “Storm” yet, right?

Sonetto: I-I am not qualified … So far, you are the only one who can move freely during the “Storm.”

Vertin: … Have you found out where she usually shows up and who knows her?

Male Investigator: Yes. She often shows at the West End, hanging around Carnaby Street and King’s Road. She used to buy records in Kingly Court, and she may return there.

Female Investigator: Oh, and her arcane skill can also change the light! Please be careful of that!

Vertin: I see. Let’s go, Sonetto.

Sonetto: Are you coming with me? Ahh, thank you! I thought you would leave after breaking through …

Vertin: It’s okay …I have my own mission. Also in Kingly Court.

[taylorvaughnsaidso]

“Am I wrong?” Legally speaking, yes. Again, the fact that they were planning to move to the UK is largely irrelevant to the courts because the conditions under which those plans were made - them being married and both moving together - no longer exist. Pre-divorce plans don’t contradict anything because they no longer matter. Joe can simply say he’s changed his mind now that they’re divorcing and now feels the children should remain in the US, where he’ll argue they had a more settled life because they either hadn’t actually moved yet or hadn’t lived there long enough to have a more established life than they had in the US. That’s the whole reason Sophie’s filing tries so hard to establish that the kids were already living in the UK, going to the doctor and dentist there etc., because just saying they planned to move there honestly doesn’t really matter. Joe doesn’t have to prove that he never planned to move to the UK (although he may well try if he has any evidence that he feels disputes that claim), just that he children shouldn’t move there *now*.

This is what I mean when I say we won’t know what kind of case he actually has until we can see his response. If he has little or nothing to dispute Sophie’s claims about where the children were living for the past few months AND no compelling evidence that they had a settled life in the US, then he doesn’t have much of one and will likely be ordered to relinquish the passports unless the judge rules that they lived in the UK for too short of a time to declare it their rightful home regardless (which is possible). But if he has anything showing that the kids were participating in daily life in the US - likely similar things to what Sophie claimed like doctors, dentist, extracurriculars - to an equal or greater degree than they were in the UK, or if he has anything that calls any of Sophie’s claims into question - photos of the kids with metadata showing they were taken in the US during a time she claimed they were in the UK (even if she says they were just visiting, it becomes he said/she said unless she can prove it), evidence that the kids’ school registrations and such that Sophie mentions were arranged too recently to truly show that they were settled into UK life for a sufficient length of time, evidence that the kids also saw the doctor or dentist in the states just as recently so that doesn’t indicate permanent residence, etc. - his case becomes stronger and hers weaker. He could also potentially have something that might allow him to call the whole petition into question and argue Sophie doesn’t truly want the kids in the UK and is just weaponizing the legal system to punish him, or intends to withhold the kids if she’s able to remove them from the country (if, for example, she said anything about “making him pay” in court or that he’ll be lucky if she ever brings the kids back/lets him see them again after she takes them - both very common sentiments said in anger that I’ve personally seen parents get in trouble over before - then this could potentially backfire on her all together, including possibly leading to an Uno reverse card situation where *she* ends up on the hook for threatening parental abduction).

Legally speaking, the reality is that this case just isn’t as cut and dry as people want it to be. Even in the absolute best of circumstances, which this case clearly doesn’t have, international custody cases are *always* complex and get messy extremely fast. It’s almost enough to make you think the Parent Trap parents were right to just each take one kid and never speak again. It’s understandable that everyone wants a certain outcome but as much as we can all agree that Joe is a dick, at the end of the day being a dick is not illegal and he’s not on trial for it. Sophie could very well end up on top in the end, but her case simply isn’t the automatic legal slam dunk that people want to believe it is.

Ah thank you! Just going to post as is - this is a great legal summation of the situation.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Ey, sorry, I apologize for bothering you, but are there any actual allegations against the green brothers? A google didn't show me anything

I've just posted a long response to a similar ask, which I'd suggest you read, and I'm also going to try to find a previous blog post I wrote on the subject.

As far as I am aware, there are no allegations of sexual assault or similar, directly against the Green brothers. What is true (this is not allegation, this is fact) is that they gave a platform via their record label and events to a number of young men who ultimately used that platform to abuse women/girls, including younger teenagers. Some of this abuse took place at VidCon when the Green brothers were running the event.

Some of the men involved weren't just being given a platform by the Green brothers, they were people that at least Hank Green considered friends at the time- although of course he's since distanced himself. A lot of the "receipts" from this time have been lost from the internet, and Wikipedia tends to have varying amounts of information on the events involved because it gets removed every so often.

If you google "youtube sexual abuse scandal" or some of the names involved (see the previous ask) then you'll find something, for sure.

In my opinion (as someone who actually teaches a high school age group) there's not a dividing line of "paedophile" and "suitable to be a teacher" although that may be the legal distinction in some countries. It's a continuum, and I don't personally think that someone who ran an event which allowed a 15yo to be abused by a 21yo, and was somewhat aware of the interactions they were having is suited to being a teacher (again please see the previous ask because I don't want to rehash myself here).

In England (where I teach), if a teacher ran an event which led to this situation and saw the interactions Hank Green saw, I am about 99% sure they would lose their GTC registration (their teaching licence if you will).

Now, I know people "learn and grow" but I have never really seen the Green brothers acknowledge their role in some of the events that happened. After allegations came out, they were quick to sever ties with people, and claim they knew nothing was going on and then start preaching about consent. But I've never seen any reflection on their own actions, or any comments on what they feel they should have done differently. They may well have done this in private, and I do note they at least take more steps to protect themselves now.

But in my personal opinion, they're not suitable people to be in a position of responsibility for or power over teenagers.

[glapplebloom]

What’s so Civil about War anyway?

There are a lot of terrible comic book storylines. One of them happens to be the Civil War. You got Linkara’s video about 15 things wrong about Civil War and he brought up an interesting trivia about it: the creator believes that Iron Man’s side was the right side. So... Let’s ignore hindsight, the comic itself and presume that this is just a debate. Is the Superhuman Registration Act a good thing? Let’s see...

1 - What is the Superhuman Registration Act

So what does this thing even do? This information summary is based off the Marvel Wiki, so if anything is wrong please let me know. First, it requires all super-powered individuals to surrender their real names to the government. So if you got powers, the government, not the public, will know who you are. That way, they can monitor you via getting a license or even a job using said super powers. And said powered beings had to pass some criteria before they could use said powers for crime fighting. And while working for the government isn’t mandatory, it is an option.

2 - The Positives

Well, the biggest for me is that if you got powers useful for stopping crime, you got a job. All you gotta do is go to a training facility, pass some tests, and boom: you got an easy ticket to a paying job with the government. But what if you want to be a hero on your own terms? Well, by doing this licensing deal, you would have a legal license to do hero-ing. No more cops stopping you because they think you’re a menace. You can probably go on trial as the hero without worrying about having an identity revealed. You can get paid as the hero since you got a government licensed identity card so they could sign a check to Spider-man and he can cash it in as Spider-man. 

Another positive, training. No more “I got powers, I’m gonna be a hero! Whoops, blew up the bank” ala Carnage as a hero. They can know what to do, how to do it, maybe get a better understanding of their powers under proper controlled environments instead of on the field. And we know this idea could work out, My Hero Academia is the Superhuman Registration Act realized. Granted, better since you have to be of age to be part of it but still this should be what they had planned when coming up with it.

3 - The Negatives

The Government would have all the information. Said government that could be taken over by aliens, or mind controlled by an interdimensional tyrant, or found in the future by some conqueror going to the past, or maybe Norrin Osborn becomes president like Luthor did and gets access to it. Let’s face it, the government having all this information is a terrible idea. And while hindsight prevents me from showing examples of how bad it went, luckily for me there’s a What If Comic about the Civil War where without Ironman to lead the Pro-Reg side, the Government uses sentinels to kill all the heroes. 

Speaking of Sentinels, they screwed this up already since this is an evolution of the Mutant Registration Act. And we’ve seen how messed up the X-Men Storylines are. Right now they’re on their own continent, becoming their own nation and sniffing their own farts and I still don’t get how they represent minorities when other people get powers and they get treated like Celebrities. So it’s less hindsight and more “people who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

And as Linkara said, this act is only punishing those with powers who are doing good. Villains would still not register, would hide or escape, and even if they get put on a list they’re more likely to use any chance they got to escape prison, escape whatever de-powering device is on them and just get back to being a villain. 

4 - So who was right?

Ironically, Tony Stark. Prior to this Civil War, Iron man made a proposal for a variation of the Superhero Registration Act among the other members of the Illuminati. He saw what was going to happen to the letter: the big act that makes the government rush to release it, the split among those who support it and those who don’t. But if they support it before that moment, they could defuse it and possibly make changes. Iron man even proposed it years prior as having delegates among the Super Heroes to know what’s up and make a united front, a Registration Act controlled by the heroes for the heroes.

But since it didn’t happen, which side is on the right. Well, for me it’s the Anti-Registration Act. The Pro-Side has a lot of benefits, but the fact that the Government has access to everyone’s identity, when we had history of them taken over by evil beings in the past, and spoilers in the future too, is not the most trustworthy place. Heck, I don’t even trust the real world government to not change a lightbulb without spending more money on a military front. 

And that What if shows Tony’s idea prior to Civil War working: the Government won’t be the ones with access to such information: the Avengers would with Capt. America being the only one with access to everyone’s identity. They’ll have the most sophisticated security measure to protect him from mind manipulation or such things and he can handpick the person to carry the information if he dies. And positive, this is before Hydra Cap took over so win/win.

So in my book, it’s a good idea poorly executed. Training young heroes is a good idea. Having easy access to all the heroes to help a problem is a good idea. Having a Registration System so you can be a hero without getting the cops on your case because “you’re not part of the law” is a good idea. But letting the Government know your identity so when, not if, WHEN some evil person takes over and finds out all that juicy information you’re all in danger. But Captain America, that’s a guy I would trust. Be it Steve or Sam.